"They've been with humans for thousands of years," said elephant handler Larry Rostrata. "You'd think they're domesticated animals but they're still wild animals."

Their powerful trunks are all muscle.

"It's a 10,000 pound animal," Rostrata said. "The trunk weighs a couple hundred pounds. So, if it were to swing in one direction, not even in full force, you'd go flying."

The earth's largest land mammals have provided humans strength and transportation in wet and steep terrain.

"As an animal handler you don't step right in, right away," said Rostrata. "You learn the animals' behaviors and quirks and she does the same with you. And so over a period of timeyou learn to trust each other. and that's the thing, the trust and respect."

Elephants are smart. The largest brain in the animal kingdom, weighs 11 pounds. Hawaii's girls understand 40 commands in English and Hindi.

Honolulu zoo keepers also use a "guide," a symbol of mom.

"When an elephant mother coaxes her baby around, it either pushes or pulls," Rostrata said. So this pushes the elephant, reminds the elephant you're supposed to go this ways or pull, come this way."

Coconut trees are toys and food. Four molars easily grind food. Their hair is coarse, like a coconut husk. Without sweat glands on their thick skin, water and dust keep them cool.
Elephants' wear down their ivory tusks, called tushes on females.

But hunters' greed has done much worse, leaving us with fewer than 30,000 Asian elephants alone. That's less than a packed Aloha Stadium. Conservationists count on zoos and breeding to educate the public.

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